Asus Crosshair AM2 Motherboard

[CMB]

And just to make sure I understand you..only nvidia cards are sli capable.
A card that is nvidia gpu based is fine. Nvidia don't make their own cards.

[CMB]

Asus Extreme GeForce 6600 512MB SLI is fine.

[PowerHungry]

To clarify, the chipset for SLI use must be NVidia, but the card itself can be Asus, BFG, eVGA or any other manufacturer who use the NVidia chipset and I believe you can actually use two different brands of cards as long as the chipset remains NVidia.

[Jackrazzak]

Welcome Jackrazzak !.
You can use any single card on this motherboard ati or nvidia.
If you want to go to sli in the future then you will need to have an sli ready card, and match it later on.

Thanks , ati make sli ready cards so it should work right?

[CMB]

No...ati do not make sli ready cards.

[CMB]

AtI based cards have something similar called crossfire, but it is for a crossfire ready board. Nvidia's scheme is called SLI (trademarked) and is for Nvidia based SLI motherboards.
Hope that it is clear, if not ask more.

[CMB]

Perhaps it's confusing because Asus named the board Crosshair, which is similar to Crossfire...
Anyway
http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_learn.html

[Jackrazzak]

Oh thanks alot for all your help. It's all clear, was feeling a bit slow.

[chopper1]

Sorry, noob question, but on the crosshair, do you plug in the 8-pin connecter to the ATX 12v port? Because when i do, there is a burning smell. Otherwise, without the connection, the pc turns on, everything spins up, but there is no video. I am calling ASUS tonight, but any feedback here would be helpful

[Allen Haid]

Yes you plug the PSU 8-pin connector into the Crosshair connector, which is near the CPU socket (close to the I/O ports on the back panel). Without it you won't have sufficient power as you are finding.

Now here's some more info for you. My first Crosshair motherboard caught fire! One of the voltage controller chips near that same power connector actually made a crackling sound after running maybe 5 minutes, then flame came out of it before I was able to pull the power plug. I RMA'ed that motherboard back to Newegg and got a replacement. If you are smelling something burning, I recommend you take the motherboard out of the case and try it on a workbench. I think this motherboard might be easily shorted underneath, which is the problem I think I had. If you don't smell anything when it's running on your workbench (out of the case), then consider installing a thin sheet of non-conductive foam in-between the motherboard and the case when you reinstall the motherboard. If you do smell something burning, I recommend you request an RMA and get another board.

[chopper1]

Thanks Allen, I talked to someone at asus, told her what was going on. She told me to plug in the 8-pin, and the board started smoking a lot. Through her fits of laughing, she told me to return it to the vendor. Its on its way.

[MikeVictor]

Can two Asus Nvidia 7950 GX2's be installed on the Crosshair MB?

Mike

[PowerHungry]

Why Not??

[Allen Haid]

We are running two 7900 GT's on the Crosshair motherboard, but you are talking about essentially 4 GPUs (2 per board) with the dual 7950 GX2's, right? Here is nVidia's validated listing of Asus motherboards that work with at least a single 7950 GX2: http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforc...sortBy=chipset

I bet they didn't try a Crosshair motherboard because that was a fairly recent 590 SLI chipset board. I would e-mail nVidia or Asus and ask them if it's been tested anywhere.

[MikeVictor]

Thanks for the replys.

I have no clue why not, but I am interested in upgrading to Quad SLI and was wondering if anyone has done that with the Crosshair and two 7950 GX2's. Mine are of the ASUS EN variety, thought that would work best with an ASUS MB.

I have one GX2 on my Crosshair now and it works fine, but with the new games, like COD4, the graphics are intense (excellent) and perhaps a quad set up would do the trick. I have a dual core AMD 4000 CPU in it and 2 gig of Corsair memory. In pretty good shape there, but wondered what another GX2 would do.

I was looking around newegg and tigerdirect yesterday, and could not find a 7950 GX2 for sale!? Have they been sold out/discontinued I wonder.....Not sure where to find one now, didn't see them on the ASUS web site either.

Well, I am mostly curious at this point, though I hope I can upgrade to quad using the GX2's in the future.

I will contact ASUS about this as I have their brand MB and 7950GX2.

Thanks again,
Mike